Peaker plant important for safety, economy

April 9, the California Coastal Commission will host a public hearing to determine whether or not to allow the Southern California Edison Co. to build a 50-megawatt electrical-generation facility, called a “peaker plant,” at McGrath Beach in Oxnard. For many reasons, our community should support this important project, particularly as this issue relates to our safety, jobs and the economy.

A “peaker” is a small electrical power plant that is available when needed, but typically operates only during periods of high — or peak — electricity demand. Powered by natural gas, the proposed peaker would be environmentally sound, provide local electric system support and increased power reliability. Most importantly, a peaker is designed to be up and available during emergencies, when we need power most.

Edison’s proposed plant has emergency start capability, otherwise called “black start.” Consequently, from a cold start, the peaker could quickly restore power to critical customers in Oxnard, such as hospitals, during emergencies. The peaker, by its proximity to other facilities, would then have the capability to start two local larger Reliant power plants. This ability to jump-start local plants would allow our community to be back to full power within hours to a single day, rather than much longer without local black-start capability. The 1994 Northridge earthquake taught us here in Ventura County that getting back up to full power, faster, is of great importance to our local emergency responders, at-home elderly, public-safety officials and merchants.

The peaker will provide numerous local economic and employment benefits. The facility will pay $660,000 in property taxes annually to Ventura County that will benefit the county, local cities, school districts, libraries, fire protection, flood control, water districts and redevelopment projects. During the construction period, the project will create 90 to 120 jobs and provide more than 100,000 man-hours of employment to total $15 million in local wages. After that, peaker operations will spend $150,000 to $200,000 per year locally for labor, services and materials to maintain the units.

These direct jobs and benefits are particularly valuable during the current economic crisis. Indirectly, the impacts are just as important. Our local merchants and manufacturers could not survive a lengthy period of time without power. Downtime could result in lost perishable goods, sales and the ability to maintain production. And that’s just another thing our community can’t endure during a recession.

The project is environmentally sound. In fact, the California Coastal Commission’s own staff has recommended approval of the peaker, finding that it fully complies with the California Coastal Act. The peaker would be constructed on bare dirt on an old oil tank farm from the 1970s that has been remediated. Edison will also voluntarily spend more than $500,000 to help beautify Harbor Boulevard with trees and plants where there is now only a chain-link fence. Lastly, the facility doesn’t affect our air quality. The local Air Pollution Control District has analyzed the possible emissions from the peaker and concluded that it will not cause any air-quality impacts to the area.

It has been suggested that locating the peaker in this area would create an issue of environmental justice. This concern is misplaced. Environmental justice issues are created when a facility is built in a neighborhood with more than 50 percent minority or low-income residents, and the facility will cause a disproportionate adverse environmental impact to those vulnerable residents. Neither the location nor design of the Edison project meets that definition. The plant would be adjacent to other industrial facilities. Those who do live nearby are predominantly Caucasian and middle class, with only 16 percent minority and 6 percent low-income residents. And, even if the demographics were different, there are, according to all of the analyses, no identifiable adverse impacts by this facility as defined by our state’s strict environmental laws. Environmental justice is simply a red-herring argument to divert attention from the facts.

The Gold Coast Hispanic Business Council stands with other business, public safety, emergency-response and government leaders in strong support of the Edison Peaker Project because the facility makes sense for the future of our community.

— Mary M. Howard is chairwoman of the board of the Gold Coast Hispanic Business Council based in Oxnard.